INTERPOL on Thursday introduced {that a} coordinated legislation enforcement motion has disrupted 10,909 malicious networks and recovered greater than $105 million in illicit funds.
In tandem, the trouble noticed legislation enforcement companies from 21 nations arrest 1,462 suspects. Codenamed Operation Serengeti III, the cybercrime crackdown came about between June 29 and August 31, 2026.
“Authorities recognized 65,929 victims focused by cybercriminal networks, underscoring the dimensions and class of immediately’s digital threats,” INTERPOL mentioned in a press release. “Monetary investigations linked legal exercise to losses exceeding USD 385 million.”
Taking part nations included Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Group-IB, which was one of many many non-public sector companions, mentioned it offered INTERPOL with menace intelligence information on phishing kits, botnets, and different malicious assets hosted in Africa or used to conduct cyber assaults focusing on the area.
“Criminals can not function with out infrastructure. They must construct it, join it and keep it, and people actions create alternatives to seek out them,” mentioned Jacomo Piccolini, vice chairman of World Information Partnerships at Group Cymru.
“As a substitute of ready for an assault after which investigating the harm, we may also help expose the networks behind legal operations and allow defensive actions. Operation Serengeti III demonstrates the real-world affect of placing that intelligence within the arms of legislation enforcement.”
Among the key operational highlights are listed under –
- Disruption of two transnational fraud rings and the arrest of 365 overseas nationals in Uganda linked to classy on-line funding and pension fraud schemes focusing on victims throughout Asia.
- Dismantling of two unlawful cryptocurrency mining facilities and the arrest of 9 suspects in Angola, together with the seizure of two,000 cryptocurrency mining gadgets and 6 unlawful energy transformation stations valued at over $1 million.
- Arrest of a suspect in Nigeria in reference to a large-scale phishing and enterprise electronic mail compromise operation that collected software program credentials and amassed about 2.1 million electronic mail addresses.
- Arrest of one other suspect in Nigeria for working a global funding fraud scheme marketed through messaging apps. The operation led to the motion of greater than $2.4 million in suspected legal proceeds, with an enormous chunk of the funds laundered by way of cryptocurrency transactions.
- Arrest of 30 suspects linked to a cybercrime operation within the Republic of Congo.
Operation Serengeti III follows two earlier waves that came about between September and October 2024, and June and August 2025, resulting in greater than 2,000 arrests.
“Cybercrime networks function with out regard for borders, exploiting expertise to focus on victims on an unprecedented scale,” Neal Jetton, INTERPOL’s director of cybercrime, mentioned.
“Operation Serengeti III reinforces a transparent message: whereas cybercrime is more and more borderless, worldwide cooperation stays one of the vital efficient instruments for disrupting legal networks, recovering legal property and defending communities from digital hurt.”
